This recently started SOCS project (NSF 12-11071) examines strategies for dealing with the flood of digital data that confronts researchers. New techniques, tools and strategies for dealing with massive data sets, whether they consist of vast numbers of base-pair sequences or terabytes of data from all-sky astronomical surveys, present an opportunity to establish a 'fourth paradigm' of scientific discovery, but the task is not easy. In many areas of research, the relentless growth of data sets has led to the adoption of increasingly automated and unsupervised methods of classification.

The SOCS project (NSF grant 09-68470) investigates the capabilities and potential of social computational systems (SoCS) in the context of citizen science. Citizen science projects are a form of social-computational system. Whether it be volunteers playing a role in massive, distributed sensing networks exploring the migration of birds, or applying their unique human perceptual skills to searching the skies, human motivation and performance is fundamental to system performance. However, undertaking science through a social computational system brings unique challenges.

This completed project was a two-phase theory-based study of virtual organizations that enable massive virtual collaboration in scientific research. The virtual organizations studied have a core of scientists and project leaders coordinating the work of a larger number of volunteer contributors, a format called citizen science. The project was directed at advancing the understanding of what constitutes effective citizen science virtual organizations and under what conditions citizen science virtual organizations can enable and enhance scientific and education production and innovation.

Employment Period: September 2013 – May, 2014, with the possibility of continuing employment in the 2014-2015 academic year

Compensation: $8,000 stipend paid over the academic year

Description: A research assistant is needed for a National Science Foundation funded (NSF-funded) research project on the learning and motivation among volunteers in citizen science. Applicants must be US or resident alien undergraduate students with an interest in open online communities (e.g., Wikipedia or Open Software Development), or the learning and information sciences.

This site has been partially supported by NSF Grant 09-43049, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and Grant 11-11107. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.